New proposal for controversial Reading housing development
Previous planning applications for the former Reading Golf Club site have attracted thousands of complaints
New plans have been unveiled to turn the old Reading Golf Club course into homes, after hugely unpopular previous proposals were rejected.
Plans to build 257 homes at the site, one of the most unpopular planning applications in the town’s history, were refused in July, leaving the future of the land by Kidmore End Road uncertain.
But a new application for up to 223 homes on 30 acres of land is being prepared by Fairfax, who are working with the site’s owners – Reading Golf Club – on the development.
Draft plans have been published, with the developers asking for feedback from the public before submitting the next application to the council.
The plans (which you can view here: https://rgcdevelopment.consultationonline.co.uk/virtual-exhibition/) would include 67 affordable homes, large areas of green publicly-accessible space and a network of cycling and pedestrian routes connecting to the south and north.
The previous plan for the site received more than 3,000 objections and Reading Borough Council’s (RBC) Planning Applications committee rejected it unanimously with concerns raised including the loss of open space, trees, increased traffic congestion, and overdevelopment.
Changes to the previous scheme include:
- Reducing the number of homes to be built
- Increasing green space
- No medical centre, with the Berkshire West Clinical Commissioning Group and local surgery stating a preference to instead upgrade the current surgery
- Increasing the number of trees to be planted
Fairfax says more than a 1,000 trees will be planted but it is not clear how many will be felled to make way for homes.
It says the proposals will deliver a “sustainable development that will not only contribute to the housing needs of the borough and improve housing choices for local people but also deliver extensive areas of green publicly accessible open space”.
However, campaigners Keep Emmer Green say the plans are an “over-development”, with RBC’s Local Plan suggesting 90-130 homes on nine acres of land would be appropriate.
KEG has put forward its own vision for the land, an arboretum (a haven and showcase of trees and shrubs), which it says “would benefit thousands of residents from Reading over the next hundred years”.